If you want to adhere to such ancient rituals and lifestyles, why have electricity or indoor plumbing at all? I'm guessing the Amish don't have such craziness with their cooking equipment.
So nice of you to decide someone else's religious beliefs are crazines.
The stores are entirely lighted and heated with gas ... and it looked to me like the refrigerators were gas powered as well (same principle as gas powered refrigeratores in RVs).
But they do take Visa, MasterCard, and Discover. And they don't mess around with carbon-paper impressions.
Because the Orthodox don't consider themselves to be living a an ancient lifestyle. They consider themselves to be living a modern lifestyle, as per ancient rules.
This all comes from wanting to avoid even the slightest shadow of impropriety. You can find similar behavior in Congress. And they still manage to be improper out the kazoo.
The Law was given to the Jews to demonstrate that it was impossible to be saved by the Law, only condemned by it.
What happens is, the group starts with a baseline law or principle. Then they establish sub-rules that, just like building a wall, keep people farther away from breaking the baseline law. Then, to make sure people don't get close to breaking the sub-rule, they create other sub-rules. More walls.
This, in general, is how we have gotten Sabbath ovens and elevator service, no dancing or card-playing for certain Christian denominations, and no crosses or creches allowed on government property.
I'm oversimplifying a bit, but that's the general process and examples of results of the process from various groups. I would guess that if I studied some of your FR posts, I could probably find some examples of wall-building you're participating in. Everybody does it to some extent. When somebody else does it, you call it craziness. When you do it, you consider it reasonable.
There is some interesting information here. Is it odd? IT is not for me to say- I am not Jewish.
It sure pisses me off when someone bad mouths my deepest held beliefs.